Biden’s Fed Vice Chair Search Seen Focusing on Three Ex-Treasury Officials Under Obama

The White House is eyeing three former Obama administration Treasury officials as potential nominees for Federal Reserve vice chair, according to an Evercore ISI analyst with past ties to President Joe Biden.

(Bloomberg) — The White House is eyeing three former Obama administration Treasury officials as potential nominees for Federal Reserve vice chair, according to an Evercore ISI analyst with past ties to President Joe Biden.

In the hunt for Lael Brainard’s successor, the White House is “focusing in” on Harvard University professor Karen Dynan, Northwestern University finance professor Janice Eberly and Morgan Stanley Chief Global Economist Seth Carpenter, according to a research note Tuesday from Tobin Marcus, an Evercore analyst who advised Biden on economic policy when he was vice president.

“Of these, we believe Dynan and Eberly are the most likely. We would view either as a continuity pick, replacing Brainard with another respected economist who is well-known in Democratic policymaking circles,” Marcus wrote.

Dynan and Eberly each served as chief economist in the Treasury Department under President Barack Obama. Dynan also spent 17 years at the Fed before that. The White House declined to comment

Carpenter spent 15 years at the Fed before a stint at the Treasury under Obama. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Carpenter was chief US economist at UBS Group AG.

He is seen as the likeliest candidate with market experience, though that may also mean he has less of a chance than the others to be the nominee, Marcus wrote. 

Biden last week named Brainard as director of his National Economic Council. She began in that role Tuesday. 

Dynan declined to comment. Eberly and Carpenter didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee is under consideration for the Fed post. Marcus wrote that “we have not heard he is on the emerging shortlist.”

–With assistance from Alister Bull.

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